Every year natural disasters strike, such as hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes. For those disasters whose severity is devastating and widespread, such as Hurricane Sandy and the tsunami that ravaged Japan in 2011, national news outlets broadcast multiple stories giving everyone a glimpse into their destruction. However, after the floodwaters have receded or the… Read more »

When a natural disaster strikes, there is often little to no warning. Many times families are forced to flee in a moment’s notice. In this situation, all the emergency preparedness and food storage in the world becomes worthless if it is left behind. When I was 7 years old and living in Southern California, millions… Read more »

Emergency Preparedness for the Car It’s summertime! If the weather itself hasn’t told you, your kids probably have. Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids, and we’re gearing up for some traveling this summer. Of course, we all take trips of various lengths in our car every day, but when we are… Read more »

During this time of the year, it seems that almost every section of the country subscribes to the old joke about the weather, which goes, “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute, it will change.” Daily weather conditions have grown increasingly erratic and extreme, and it is usually during the springtime that we… Read more »

Now that you have your pantry full of all those wonderful emergency food supplies and bottled water, and you’ve stashed fuel for your emergency stove, you can relax – right? Not so fast! Everything from propane canisters to bottled water to freeze-dried and canned food has a shelf life that you need to pay heed… Read more »

In an emergency, one of the first things you need to have available is a first aid kit. Food and water are crucial to have as the hours go by, but if there are injuries, treating them can be a matter of immediate life or death. Depending on the situation, if it is a major… Read more »

We have all heard the advice a hundred times: store plenty of water in the event of an emergency. But why is it so important to have safe, drinkable water in the first place? How much is “plenty”? How should we store it? And if we don’t have space to store a lot of water,… Read more »

BRAAAIIIIINNNNSSSS. Zombies are everywhere these days: appearing in the media in games like Plants vs Zombies, movies like Zombieland, and TV shows like The Walking Dead. They even show up in classical book rewrites, a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Of course, the chances that you will meet one zombie, let alone a horde… Read more »

As police are on the hunt to find the bombers responsible for the Boston Marathon Bombing, the city has been put on lockdown. All schools have been closed, and the public transportation system shut down, according to U.S. News. The purpose of the lockdown is to protect all the people in the city from possible… Read more »

Knowledge is Power (KiP): Everyone at one time or another in their lives should have heard of a “72 Hour Kit”. Personally as a disaster preparedness instructor for over seventeen years now, I do not believe in them or teach them in my classes. When any major disaster strikes, there is always hunger and grave… Read more »